


Little Snow, Big Snow

by Ebhenah



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Christmas, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, M/M, Post-Canon, Snowed In, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, homeowner shance, lance plays guitar, planning for the future, proposal, quiet moments, snowed in at christmas, they are hella cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-23
Updated: 2019-12-23
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:07:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21915727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ebhenah/pseuds/Ebhenah
Summary: Lance's big, important Christmas plans take a serious detour when an unexpected storm strands him and Shiro in their home instead of on their way to Cuba. Thankfully, they know how to cope with detours.
Relationships: Lance/Shiro (Voltron)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 38





	Little Snow, Big Snow

**Author's Note:**

  * For [softeststarboy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/softeststarboy/gifts).



> Written for the Shance Support Squad Holiday Exchange 2019 as a gift for Softeststarboy using the prompt "Cozy night by the fire after getting snowed in, they make the best of it"
> 
> I hope you like it!

The checklist kept him from panicking. Checklists were great for that. Such a simple tool, but so good at keeping his racing, imaginative mind from running away with him. He had spent the entire day making sure he focused on the checklist and  _ only _ the checklist so he wouldn’t get caught up in distractions and jitters. The only things left on the list were to double check the contents of his carry-on, check on the flights, and call the uber that would bring them to the airport… which he couldn’t even do until Shiro got home. Already, Lance could feel nerves race up his spine- which was ridiculous.

It was ridiculous.

Everyone loved Shiro. His family loved Shiro. Just because it was the first time he was flying to Cuba with him for the holidays didn’t mean he needed to be nervous. They’d been together for ages, and his family had been nothing but happy and supportive. Christmas with the whole extended family in Cuba was not a trial by fire or something! He didn’t know what he was so jumpy about! It was going to be fine. Completely fine. 

Right.

Tickets. Passports. Medications. Phones, laptops, camera, the good headphones, all the right chargers. The  _ stack _ of papers that explained Shiro’s prosthetic so it didn’t get confiscated or something by an overzealous security staff member or customs officer. His trashy romance novels (who wants to read something with a plot while travelling?). Shiro’s science magazines. Snacks. One change of clothes in case their luggage went missing- which would  _ not _ happen, because like ninety percent of what was in those suitcases were the gifts he’d been slowly picking up for  _ months _ and if they made him tell Nadia and Sylvio that he didn’t have a gift for them. Heads. Would. Roll.

Maybe he should move the kids’ gifts to his carry-on? Just in case? Nodding, he dragged his suitcase back into the bedroom, digging out the small packages and fiddling with the stuff in the carry-on to accommodate them. He was a seasoned traveller. He could make this work.

He was still trying to tetris the gifts into the carry-on when he heard the door open. “Lance? Darling?”

“In the bedroom, babe!” Maybe if he re-rolled the changes of clothes individually instead of by outfit? Chewing his lip he pulled out the two large rolls, tucked the gifts into the freshly created hollows and regarded the small hard-shelled bag with an assessing eye. Could work. Could definitely work.

“Are you okay?” Shiro asked gently, which was an odd question, given the situation.

“Yeah? Of course! Why wouldn’t I be oka-” He trailed off, taking in what he was seeing. Shiro was still in his jacket, cheeks and nose adorably rosy from the wind and the cold. He’d kicked off his boots, but his jeans were wet and stiff in a stripe from where the top of his snow boots ended, to just above his knee. No. Noo… nononono… 

Shaking his head and wagging his finger at his boyfriend, he climbed to his feet and rushed to the bedroom window, yanking the curtains open. “How long has it been snowing???” There was a thick blanket of snow covering the yard, and it fell steadily, tiny snowflakes swirling prettily on gusts of wind. Little snow, big snow- that’s what Shiro had taught him. Small snowflakes meant there was still a  _ lot _ of snow left to fall. This wasn’t stopping anytime soon.

“Hours… Oh no… you’ve been so focused on this you didn’t look out the window at all today, did you?”

“I’ve been busy!” He cried, opening the weather app on his phone. “No… please… no… It’s bad."

“Yeah. It’s really bad. There’s a foot down already, and no sign of it letting up anytime soon. The whole city is shutting down.”

“Our flight??” Some stubborn tendril of hope clung on in his heart.

“Cancelled. They’re all cancelled. We’ve been rebooked- for the day after tomorrow.”

“But! That’s Christmas Day!” His heart fell, his family, like most Cubans, celebrated on the twenty-fourth. “Our surprise!”

“I know,” Shiro’s expression was so tender and sympathetic that Lance honestly couldn’t tell if it helped or made things worse.

“We’re supposed to be there for Noche Buena,” he muttered, “so you can see how we celebrate.”

“Next year,” Shiro promised, resting his hand on the small of Lance’s back. “I’ll take extra time off- we both will. We’ll fly down a full week before Christmas. There’s no way we’ll miss it.”

“It’s really nasty out, huh?”

Nodding, Shiro sighed, “it’s a mess. No one was prepared for this. They’re pulling the busses off the roads and telling people to prepare for power outages.”

Lance took a deep breath, held it for a count of three and let it out again. He leaned up to kiss Shiro’s cheek. “I’m okay… disappointed, but okay. You get changed out of your coat and the wet jeans. I’m going to go call my mother and fill her in.”

“You’re sure?”

“No one can control the weather, Takashi. At least we aren’t stuck at the airport… and look- your whole ‘prepare for any eventuality’ thing might actually come in handy this time around.”

“Use the landline in the office- if the power goes, the cordless is useless… and we should avoid clogging up the cellular system right now.”

“You are such an Eagle Scout babe.”

“You love it!” Shiro laughed, and the sound brightened his mood a bit. It wasn’t the end of the world. It was just a delay. He’d still get to open gifts with his family, even if it was a day or two late. He wouldn’t even miss out of the food- because his mother cooked for an army and they always ended up eating leftovers for days, anyway. 

By the time he got off the phone with his family, he was barely even upset anymore. His family was familiar with weather interrupting plans. It was just two days. They would keep the gifts for him and Shiro under the tree and they’d have a lovely time together. Of course, his mother had to take a few minutes to express her confusion on why he wanted to live somewhere where ice fell out of the sky- but he was more than used to that. Then, because she could tell he needed cheering up, she put the kids on the phone. The two of them were so excited that they kept interrupting each other and veering off on rambling tangents about all the exciting plans they had for their holidays… most of which involved toys, food, or some combination of the two. They’d decided that Uncle Lance arriving late meant that they got to have an  _ extra _ Christmas, so that was pretty much the best news they had all year.

He liked that idea.

An  _ extra _ Christmas.

He’d spend Bueno Noche quietly celebrating with the man he loved, then they’d get up Christmas morning, head to the airport, and he’d celebrate all over again with his family. That sounded really nice, actually.

He was just pulling the door to the office shut behind him when the power gave out. The little battery powered fairy lights he’d admittedly gone a bit overboard with when they moved in (he blamed pinterest) had already been switched on by his overly-prepared boyfriend, so he wasn’t in the pitch black as he made his way back to the living room.

Shiro had started a fire in the wood stove he’d insisted on installing where the fireplace had been- because, much to Lance’s surprise, fireplaces are apparently terrible sources of heat and a huge waste of money. What did he know about the best way to set up a house for cold weather? Zilch. But while he’d been falling down the pinterest rabbit hole in preparation for buying a home, Shiro had been binging on helpful homeowner information. So, they had fairy lights pretty much everywhere, and a wood stove. It worked.

He’d also set a pot on the stove… because  _ of course _ they had a wood stove that could be used to cook. Lance hadn’t even been surprised when Shiro had insisted that the wood stove be multifunctional. He was like… next level domestic for a man that couldn’t make microwave popcorn without summoning the (definitely not as hot as calenders and tv would lead you to believe) firefighters.

“What are you heating up?” Lance asked, pulling a deck of cards out of the little basket that held the various miscellania that accumulated in the living room. They could play cards to pass the time. Maybe break out the cribbage board.

“Mulled cider- once I got the flight cancellation alert, I headed to the store for supplies. I knew you’d be bummed, so,” he shrugged, the glowing blue of his shoulder socket lifting and dropping easily. “I got you a couple of special treats.”

“I do love mulled cider,” he answered, waiting for Shiro to step back from the wood stove before wrapping his arms around him, fingers playing with the short, white hair just above his collar. “Thank-you, Takashi.”

“You’re welcome, darling.” Shiro smiled softly, “you seem like you are doing better.”

“I am. It’s just two days, right? The family sends their love. Munchkins are excited about getting an extra Christmas when we get there.”

He laughed, cuddling closer, “I hope they aren’t expecting everyone to magic up a second gift for them to open.”

“Ohhhh… I hadn’t thought of that! They might just be.” Sighing happily, he rested his head on Shiro’s shoulder, “I do like the idea of a Christmas for just us, and then one with my family, though.”

“Best of both worlds, huh?” Shiro pressed a kiss to Lance’s temple and he could feel the smile in the way those lips felt against his skin. “I’m never going to complain about getting to spend time with you.”

“Awww… you’re so sweet. So, what are we going to do with our unexpected alone time?”

“Well, we’re going to sleep out here by the heat source, for starters,” he laughed, “so we should get set up for that before it gets any darker outside.”

“Aye, aye Captain,” teased Lance, giving Shiro a playful salute. It didn’t take long to gather up bedding for the fold-out couch. Or to collect storm-appropriate snacks from the cupboards. A few rounds of card games cuddled up together in front of the warmth and glowing light of the woodstove followed... and ended, as they always did, with Shiro laughing affectionately at how invested Lance got in the outcomes. He was competitive, he knew that… but instead of getting irritated with him about it, somehow, someway, Shiro found it charming. (He wasn’t all that much more competitive than Shiro was, to be brutally honest… and Lance found that pretty charming, too.)

After that, they just... hung out. They chatted and snuggled and Lance broke out his guitar, the two of them singing together. It felt like barely any time had passed at all before they’d finished off the cider and the snacks, and exhausted the short list of songs that Lance could play from memory on his guitar. It had to have been hours, but time always flew when they were alone. 

Lance caught Shiro trying to hide a yawn one time too many for him to convincingly deny that he was ready to crash for the night, so the guitar got returned to its case and they both got ready for bed. They crawled into the fold-out couch and spent a good ten minutes trying to find a comfortable sleeping position. Finally, they’d had to accept that ‘least uncomfortable’ was the best they were going to manage. Flashing Lance a wry smile, Shiro had wrapped his arms around him and rolled onto his back, taking Lance with him so that he was acting as a sleeping surface for Lance.

Curled up against Shiro’s broad chest, it was hard for Lance to feel too bad about the delayed flight. It was disappointing, sure, but Christmas was all about family. For most of his life, Lance’s definition of family was loud, boisterous. Lots of people crammed into a small space, talking over one another, laughing and teasing and arguing. It was big and busy and overwhelming in the best ways.

Now though, family had a second, newer, more delicate meaning. It was this man, whose heart was beating slow and steady in his ear. 

Shiro. 

Who had turned out to be so different from the person Lance had thought he was back when he was reading about all his records and accomplishments. He’d been Lance’s hero… then his teammate… and his friend… and then eventually… this.

It had been a strange journey for them, even a harrowing one, at times. They’d faced things together that Lance never would have been able to dream up as a kid planning to follow in Shiro’s footsteps to be a Garrison pilot. Exciting, important, epic things.

That had all led them to this… which was equally beyond his childhood imagination. Arguing over bills. Stressing over work schedules and appointments and trying to find time for date nights. House shopping and decorating and cleaning. Small things. Quiet things. Precious, peaceful lives twining together.

Shiro was so much more than that star pilot. So much more than the Champion, or the Black Paladin. He was kind, and resilient, and had a surprisingly dark sense of humor. They… just  _ worked _ in a way Lance had never encountered before. Shiro never treated him like he was ‘too much work’ or ‘too dramatic’.

They’d taken things slow, and it had been shockingly easy for him to adjust to savoring each stage of their relationship as it developed, rather than always rushing to the next big exciting moment. It wasn’t until he’d started dating Takashi that he’d figured out that, for him, that kind of thrill-seeking in a relationship was a red flag. Not that they didn’t have their exciting moments- because they did! It was just that… normal, day to day life together was simply  _ not boring _ . It was fulfilling, and rich, and enjoyable. It felt like those amazing moments on weekends when he would wake up and the bed was the perfect temperature and the room was still nice and dim, and he had neither the need, nor the desire, to drag himself out of bed. Those mornings weren’t  _ thrilling _ , but they were  _ good _ and satisfying on a deep, deep level. 

Takashi Shirogane had become his family, just as much as his siblings and parents and all the aunts and uncles and cousins were. He was Lance’s home. Their house was his haven, because it was theirs. The life they shared together was happy in a way he’d never known he craved until he had it in his hands.

He was so in love with this man who held him close on their not-all-that-comfortable couch. Who insisted on replacing the fireplace with a woodstove that was practical and multi-functional. Who put so much time and effort and thought into making sure that they had everything they needed, even if it wasn’t flashy or trendy or fun. It wasn’t just one-sided, either. They took care of  _ each other. _ Lance made sure that Shiro kept his workaholic tendencies in check. He helped him navigate the few remaining PTSD triggers that reared their heads from time to time. He dragged him out to movies and karaoke, and continuously tried to teach him how to cook (because boy, were those lessons needed!).

His mother used to say that, when you found ‘the one’ it would be a quiet knowing, not a revelation… and Lance had scoffed, thinking that was dull and drab and spinning little kid fantasies of fairy tale-esque love stories. But, it turned out, she was right. 

This was a quiet knowing. But it wasn’t a boring quiet. It was the quiet of a perfect sunset, of waking up warm and safe and cherished every single morning. It was the certainty of being loved. It was the knowing that led to the single biggest solo purchase of his life… and months of planning a big, exciting moment… that he now realized didn’t fit  _ them, _ at all.

“Night darling,” Shiro murmured drowsily, “I love you.”

He'd been so nervous. So caught up in his dramatic plans for the trip. Riddled with nerves.“Hey, babe?” Lance lifted his head to smile at his boyfriend, all trace of his earlier jitters just... _gone_. Shiro blinked at him, his grey eyes all soft and tender with love and sleepiness. “Remember how you said that next year we’d go to Cuba a whole week before Christmas?”

“Mmhmm,” he lifted Lance’s hand to his lips, dusting a little kiss over his knuckles, “you won’t miss Christmas with your family, I promise.”

“How would you feel about making that trip… a honeymoon?”

His eyes flew open, all traces of drowsiness vanishing, “what?!?!”

“Hear me out,” Lance laughed, “I was planning this whole  _ thing _ for when we got to Cuba… and I’ve had the ring for… awhile now… but… I don’t want a big over the top proposal- it’s not  _ us _ . It’s… not who I am anymore, not really. So… this… I want this. I want this life we’ve built together, and you by my side when the world throws me a curveball. I want to keep you company in waiting rooms and wake up in your arms. I want to make promises to you in front of all our loved ones, and God, and the universe. I love you. I’m so in love with you. I want to be your husband. I want you to be mine. Takashi Shirogane, I love you so much. Will you marry me?”

“We’re supposed to be in an airport for a layover on our way to Cuba right now,” Shiro breathed.

“Uh-huh, and instead we are discovering that we really need to buy a new couch… but I still want to marry you. Do you? Want to marry me, I mean…”

“You’re serious?” One white brow arched up, but Lance saw love and  _ hope _ in those familiar eyes and he  _ knew _ what the answer would be. That quiet knowing his mother had talked about.

“I am. Completely. I am absolutely certain, too- in case you are wondering about that part.”

“I can see that,” he whispered, lifting his hand to trace his fingertips along Lance’s jaw. The smile that bloomed on his face was possibly the most breathtaking thing Lance had seen in all his adventures. “I do. I want to marry you, too, Lance McClain. I want you to be my husband. I want to be yours.”

“Yeah, you do,” Lance answered, grinning like the Cheshire Cat as he leaned in to kiss his  _ fiance. _

The snow could keep falling for a week and it would be okay. Whether they were tucked up in their little house, or settled into a guest room at his family’s farmhouse in Cuba, it didn’t matter. 

Either way, Lance would be spending Christmas with his family.


End file.
